Amy
A24 | Release Date: July 3, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
40
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJul 10, 2015
Asif Kapadia's extraordinary documentary, Amy, is filled with similarly soul-stirring, heartbreaking moments. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoJul 9, 2015
The short, sad life of Amy Winehouse is compellingly told in a new documentary that sidesteps sensationalism and dime-store psychologizing and lets archival footage do much of the work. Read full review
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 9, 2015
In some moments, Amy feels like another intrusion on the singer's privacy, like the gossip vultures circling her drug and alcohol binges, awaiting her 2011 death. Those uncomfortable moments are far outweighed by sympathetic ones. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayJul 9, 2015
[A] sensitive, superbly constructed, ultimately shattering documentary. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesMiriam Di Nunzio Jul 7, 2015
The film is often uncomfortable to watch, prompting that little voice inside each of us to scream out “Somebody help her!” Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaJul 3, 2015
This is the Amy Winehouse few of us ever got to witness, radiating cheeky self-confidence and finding joy in sharing her considerable gifts. Read full review
100
IndieWireKaleem AftabMay 17, 2015
Kapadia leaves it up to the audience to determine whether Winehouse's situation could truly have gone another way. Whether he has or hasn’t captured the true essence of the singer may require further debate, but what’s beyond question is that Amy is an extraordinary, powerful work. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 17, 2015
It is an overwhelming story, and despite everyone knowing the ending, it is as gripping as a thriller: Kapadia has fashioned and shaped it with masterly flair. Read full review
91
HitfixGregory EllwoodMay 17, 2015
Amy also turns the camera back on the viewer who saw, mocked and ignored Winehouse’s descent as it transpired across the media landscape. How could the world collectively denigrate a woman whose addiction was destroying her? In this era of reactionary social media it’s a warning to all of us to be wary of stoning the next Amy in the digital town square. Read full review
90
SlateDana StevensJul 3, 2015
Amy Winehouse’s story is a tragic one — as with Kurt Cobain, who also died at 27, her potential as a singer and songwriter was only just beginning to be realized. Yet the prevailing mood of this documentary is joy. Kapadia captures what was irreplaceable about this unique performer, and in the process gives her the opportunity to do what she was made to do, the only thing she ever really wanted: to sing. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirJul 3, 2015
Kapadia is a London-born filmmaker who approached Winehouse’s life, as he did that of Brazilian racing legend Ayrton Senna in his thrilling 2011 “Senna,” as a dramatic story with numerous twists and turns and a magnificent and tragic figure at its center. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJul 2, 2015
It is the achievement of Amy, Asif Kapadia's accomplished, quietly devastating documentary, that it makes the story of this troubled and troubling individual surprisingly one of a kind by allowing us to, in a sense, live her life along with her. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 2, 2015
With Amy, Mr. Kapadia isn’t simply revisiting Ms. Winehouse’s life and death, but also — by pulling you in close to her, first pleasantly and then unpleasantly — telling the story of contemporary celebrity and, crucially, fandom’s cost. Read full review
90
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekJun 30, 2015
A surprisingly seamless biographical documentary, one that, even though it's been constructed largely from found elements, feels gracefully whole. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovJul 8, 2015
The gut-wrenching Amy is, in the end, as much an indictment of our celebrity-obsessed (global) pop culture as it is of the perils of rampant success arriving unexpectedly fast, tires squealing and driving a hearse. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 9, 2015
What makes Asif Kapadia's documentary a devastating don’t-miss dazzler — like the lady herself — is the way he lays out her story without editorializing. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 9, 2015
Mitch Winehouse has disavowed this movie and his portrayal in it, but it’s hard to argue with the scene where he shows up on St. Lucia, where Amy has fled from the hounds of the global media, with a reality-show camera crew of his own. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 9, 2015
Amy stays above the tabloid fray, up to a point. Kapadia hasn't made a groundbreaking documentary; it's more like a classy, high-end edition of "Behind the Music." Read full review
85
TheWrapInkoo KangJul 2, 2015
Amy is both biography and autopsy, an exhaustive chronicle of her rise to the top of the charts and a bare-knuckled indictment of the vulturish men who took advantage of the emotionally vulnerable singer. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianJeff BakerJul 10, 2015
It's a sad story, and Asif Kapadia's documentary tells it without narration or commentary. Instead there's a brilliantly edited succession of interviews and performances and news footage that glides through her charmed, doomed life. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJul 10, 2015
A powerful, and powerfully sad, experience. Read full review
83
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJul 9, 2015
Had Amy Winehouse not been a briefly famous musician – had she been an architect or a teacher or even a woman who mopped floors – the documentary Amy might have been nearly as compelling. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubKyle RyanJul 3, 2015
Winehouse was a complicated artist who deserved a nuanced, honest look at her life. In lesser hands, Amy could be a feature-length E! True Hollywood Story, but Kapadia treats his subject with respect and heart. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 16, 2015
It's a gripping and thoroughly effective, perhaps even brilliant piece of biographical documentary filmmaking. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJul 9, 2015
If there's a voice of wisdom and hope in Kapadia's film, it comes from 89-year-old crooner Tony Bennett, whose duet with Winehouse on "Body and Soul" was reportedly her last studio recording before her death. "Life teaches you how to live it," Bennett tells Kapadia's camera in what ends up being one of the film's ultimate morals. "If you can live long enough." Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelJul 9, 2015
[An] exhilarating, brutally depressing documentary. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJim FarberJul 3, 2015
The result may be depressing, but the performance footage balances it with rousing evidence of Winehouse’s eternal talent. Read full review
80
Total FilmKevin HarleyJul 2, 2015
Kapadia lays bare the tragedy of Winehouse’s story. It’s a tough, unfiltered watch but a thoughtful, thorough, feeling one. Read full review
80
EmpirePhil de SemlyenJul 2, 2015
A vibrant, haunting documentary, and a poignant tribute to a free spirit. Read full review
80
The DissolveKeith PhippsJul 1, 2015
She was, the documentary argues, a complex artist, one of awe-inspiring talent and many frustrating contradictions, and one who deserved better than to become just another punchline on her way to the grave. Kapadia provides a heartbreaking reminder of what we lost when we lost her. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeMay 17, 2015
Hardly innovative in form, but boasting the same depth of feeling and breadth of archival material that made Kapadia’s “Senna” so rewarding, this lengthy but immersive portrait will hit hard with viewers who regard Winehouse among the great lost voices not just of a generation, but of an entire musical genre. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonMay 17, 2015
As a whole, Amy is an emotionally stirring and technically polished tribute, its sprawling mass of diverse source material elegantly cleaned up, color-corrected and shaped into a satisfying narrative. Read full review
80
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganMay 17, 2015
Amy is a cautionary tale - she was the Janis Joplin of our age, and as it’s the media age, we get to see the full price of fame this time as a fragile talent self-combusts. It’s not a pretty picture. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 17, 2015
Kapadia’s film is many things: a Sherlockian reconstruction of Winehouse’s arcing path across the skies of superstardom, a commemoration of her colossal talent, and a moving tribute to a brilliant, witty, vivacious young woman gone far too soon. But above all, it’s a perceptive examination of the singer’s need for love – from her friends, family, colleagues, husband and public – and the ways in which that need went unmet, or was exploited, at the times it ached in her the most. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonDave CalhounMay 17, 2015
Anyone with a beating heart will be forgiven for allowing it to break during this unflinching and thoughtful account of the life and death of the soul singer Amy Winehouse. Read full review
80
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 17, 2015
Whereas Senna had that one moment of horrible impact, this latest tale is the story of one long car crash. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartJun 30, 2015
Two of Winehouse’s oldest friends also contribute, giving deeply sad accounts of watching their goofy, fearless pal disappear into a haze of flashbulbs and self-destruction. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 30, 2015
Amy does its greatest service by holding up a mirror to this sad icon who lived her life in imitation of “The Rose.” Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJul 2, 2015
Alternately thrilling and devastating, throwing you back and forth until the devastation takes over and you spend the last hour watching the most supernaturally gifted vocalist of her generation chase and find oblivion. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChris CabinJun 28, 2015
For the most part, the documentary succeeds in conveying a galvanizing sense of what made Winehouse so immediately engaging. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedJul 8, 2015
Never failed to hold me spellbound, even when I saw obvious spots where easy cutting would reduce the agony to a much more comfortable running time. Read full review
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